


Good Dog, Bad Wolf

by SecondStarfall (beantiger)



Series: The Second Starfall Stories [32]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Style, Fantasy, Female Friendship, Flashbacks, Gen, Hugs, Medieval, Minor Violence, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Scars, Soldiers, War, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22975546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beantiger/pseuds/SecondStarfall
Summary: She found the chief with her head bowed, hunched over in her chair..."I was a bad wolf," said the chief suddenly.***A young werewolf wants to know more about her hero's scar.
Series: The Second Starfall Stories [32]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582975
Kudos: 5





	Good Dog, Bad Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> This is a version of the original Twitterfic, same title, posted over at my now-deactivated personal account in February 2020. It has been given minor edits for consistency with other stories and readability on AO3. ❤️
> 
>  **SUGGESTED REREADING:** I introduced Simone (as a grown-up) in ["The Werewolf's Very Lucky Plan."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22415860) This takes place sometime after.
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨

"How did you get that scar on your cheek? Can you tell me? Please?" asked the young werewolf of her hero.

And this hero—the chief of the royal guard—twitched a smile at the pup over her desk. 

Animals read human body language better than said humans could ever dream, and Simone the werewolf knew that particular smile. It was strained. One of a mother holding back pain for the sake of her family.

"Does it hurt?" Simone added, tilting her head to one side.

"It's just not a story for today, little pup."

"Or—"

"Or tomorrow. Or ever. I'm sorry." The chief's frown twitched, and she returned to the records in her hands. Musty papers, mustier books. Under that smell—Simone huffed—a tinge of sweat, anxious and guarded.

Everyone at Quellheart Keep treated Simone as if she still nursed at her mother's breast, and she liked that, most of the time, though she had recently turned eighteen or nineteen (she could not remember). She didn't want anyone to be afraid of her. But she didn't, in fact, want to be kept in the dark, either. She shuffled around the chief's office, then sprung back into the chair across from the chief's desk.

"Come on, Marlesse! I'll tell you about MY scar," the young werewolf said, lifting up her tunic with one hand.

"Ah—ohmygoodness. Please put your shirt down—"

Simone pointed to a gash on her ribs, grinning. "I got THIS when I was just a puppy! I was stabbed! It looks fascinating, doesn't it?"

Strangely, the chief had shielded her eyes, looking away. Simone rocked back and forth. 

"It was before I was a good do—a good wolf. I was a bad wolf, and I didn't listen to the moon, and I used to sleep way under the castle in my wolf skin because it's really relaxing under there, you know? Someone found me and bam!" 

"Hm. Is there a difference," Chief Marlesse asked, her eyes still averted, "between a good wolf and a bad wolf?"

How to explain to a human what the moon had told her? Every werewolf—every natural-born werewolf—had a part of the moon living inside of them. Something like a spirit, like the kind that spoke to and partnered with ritualists like mages and magicians. A wolf could accept that spirit, if they wanted: that meant you were a good wolf. Everything felt in-tune and balanced when you just accepted the moon. But you could reject it, too. Then you were a very bad wolf, and despair tailed you wherever you fled...

At least, that's what the moon said.

Simone tried to relay this to the chief.

"The piece that lives in _me_ has a secret name I'm not allowed to tell anyone," she finished, and dropped her shirt. "It doesn't really talk to me anymore because it's, it's sort-of, it is me? You have to sort-of, be one wolf, with your piece of the moon. You can't deny it."

"Or?"

"Or else...bad wolf."

***

When the conversation settled into dust, Simone trotted out of the office, and then came back after lunch after she'd finished her chores at the kennel. She found the chief with her head bowed, hunched over in her chair.

"I was a bad wolf," said the chief suddenly. "The scar. On my cheek. I was. I was—very bad, the most awful—"

A chaotic menagerie of scents had filled the office, but the top note was that of panic, and of desperation. Simone dropped into a more wolfish shape and nudged her nose under the chief's hand. 

"I was a beast," the chief croaked. "I was—"

The words confused Simone but she curled her upper body into the chief's lap, pressing close. She had never thought of Marlesse as anything but profoundly kind, the sort who had strength she never needed to use—a wolf in heart, though not in body. Fingers dug into Simone's fur.

Said the chief, "I'm sorry—it's not your fault—"

Whatever had caused the chief to think she'd been a bad wolf—well, Simone didn't think it was her fault, either.

She nuzzled into the chief's embrace until the sobbing stopped.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or a kudos or whatever the heck if this tickled your fancy. There shall be more! ❤️ Also, please let me know what other characters, relationships, or places you'd like to hear about. I have lots of ideas, but I'd enjoy writing a few stories for y'all as well.
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY:** We'll get to the story of Marlesse's scar for sure, I promise. It's a bit of a bummer, though, so I'm sort-of waiting for the world (our world) to calm down a bit. It's not immediately relevant, so I can push it off for quite a while.


End file.
